Trevor Paglen

Artist, writer, and scientist Trevor Paglen’s work cuts across boundaries between social science, contemporary art, journalism, and experimental geography in order to examine politics of visibility and truth-making. Often working in photography, Paglen documents surveillance techniques, revealing means of communication and means of information transfer that are traditionally clandestine. He has used telephoto lenses to capture images of U.S. governmental and military activity—for instance drones, classified satellites, or military prisons. These images often appear distorted, abstract, and even impressionistic. Their formal qualities both take on art historical resonance—from pictorialist photography to color-field painting—and comment upon the instability of images as evidence. Paglen creates work that does not cleanly represent phenomena, but is itself mired within the limits of visibility that temper knowledge of U.S. government power. His work was included in The Kitchen’s 2016 group exhibition “From Minimalism into Algorithm.” For more information, please see: http://www.paglen.com/